Before her first book was published, she worked as a newspaper copy editor in Fort Wayne, Indiana a newspaper reporter in Indianapolis and a community college instructor and freelance writer in Danville, Illinois. She graduated from Miami University (of Ohio) with degrees in English/journalism, English/creative writing and history. Interesting and relatable characters, problems to be solved, a mystery to investigate, and then a parallel world to try and understand.Margaret Peterson Haddix grew up on a farm near Washington Court House, Ohio. I liked this book because it was really well paced, and there were lots of different parts that came together well. Middle grade readers (4th to 6th) who enjoy a balance of realistic fiction and fantasy. Also, the things that happen are not things that normally happen to kids, so it’s exciting to see what comes next. The book keeps moving constantly, always introducing new elements or information just as the kids are about to solve what they’re working on. The Strangers main themes are adventure and fantasy. While this made it easy to read, it also made the story feel a bit choppy sometimes. The story is told in very short chapters, from Chess, Emma, and Finn’s points of view. Finn is the wild card – everyone thinks he’s too young to understand or help, but he looks at thing differently, which ends up helping a lot sometimes. Emma is the logical one – she looks at everything like it’s a puzzle to be solved. Chess is the “grown-up” – trying to take care of the others. I liked how each Greystone child had their own distinct personality. Then when they figured out the next step they got excited, which made me happy too.

The kids were constantly feeling worried or scared while they were working to figure out clues, which made me feel impatient to see what would happen next. There were lots of feelings in this book. What made it really interesting was watching the sibling dynamics as they worked together to unravel the clues their mother left them. It was a great adventure with elements of science fiction and mystery thrown in as well. The story follows Chess, Emma, and Finn Greystone–ages 12, 10, and eight-as they investigate why their mother went missing, and uncover their ties to an alternate world. Joan read The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix and this is what she thought…

Margaret peterson haddix the strangers